Horizon

Christine Kesler and Emmy Thelander

This collaboration reflects a conversation that transformed into a game of addition and reduction. Kesler and Thelander present collaborative and individual works. Much of their process was fully dependent on digital tools, which allowed them to transcend their three thousand miles of space.

The process began with Kesler photographing her collages, which existed only for a few moments and would then be destroyed. The images turned into other works of art, or assimilated into new collages. The pieces experienced a shift in scale, time and space, and new ideas were layered on top of old ones. The digital photograph of the now destroyed collage in its original form became the point of departure. Thelander was able to re-materialize and alter the digital copy and send a new photograph back to Kesler, creating a duplicate that lives simultaneously on the opposite coast. The continuous dialogue between the photograph and sets of materials inevitably brought up subjects of experimentation, temporariness, the spectacle and immateriality in light of the digital clone. Fracturing the original created a new understanding of-and disregard for-personal agency in one's work. The resulting images are to be presented in various stages of the collaboration, as exchanged by Kesler and Thelander in numerous rounds.

This is the first time the pieces-as well as the artists-will meet in real life. The process was a conversation, the collaboration was generative, and without a marked end, the viewer can experience the ongoing partnership.